Peak Oil and the Decline of Cheap Fuel
The concept of Peak Oil is central to the case for Fortress New Zealand. Peak Oil predictions are concerned with future world oil production reaching a peak and declining rapidly. We live as part of a global civilisation which is utterly dependent on supplies of cheap fuel. Throughout the last century, mankind has had cheap fuel supply – an asset which we have squandered selfishly and irresponsibly, leaving a nightmare scenario for future generations. At the present rate of consumption, Earth’s oil reserves will be depleted within fifty years, and will be perilously low long before that.
Because we have no viable alternatives, the danger is that our entire technological and financial system will collapse at some point in the not-too-distant future, leaving us stranded somewhere between the Middle Ages and the Stone Age, depending on how lucky we are!
Fortress New Zealand sets out a plan, whereby we can start now to create a sustainable national technology that will allow us to undergo this transition in a ‘soft landing’ which will keep the benefits of sophisticated machinery and equipment, combined with a sound agricultural base.